| We are busy working on our Centre opening plan and know there are lots of people who are keen to reconnect and to access support. Our Trustee Board and staff team have carefully followed guidance from Government and Local Authority. As a charity, company limited by guarantee, community service and an employer, we have a lot to consider in adhering to the numerous requirements and must endeavour to keep everyone safe. Over the coming months we will gradually roll out a plan which will begin the process of bringing back face to face services at our Centre. This will be blended with on-line and telephone support to provide continuity and to ensure we are meeting differing needs. Firstly, we have some maintenance work to complete as the space has been unoccupied for so long. We also must ensure we meet the Covid-safe regulations for workspaces and community use. When these have been completed and the staff team have been reintroduced, we will initially be offering face-to-face counselling appointments. These will run concurrently with telephone counselling to ensure a seamless transition. We will look at introducing small welcome meetings for newly registered people and small peer support groups as the next step and will provide dates and details of how to book spaces when we are ready to begin that phase. If you are on our counselling waiting list, we will be in touch soon. The Centre will not be available for drop-in or ad hoc visits for the foreseeable future and will be by appointment only until we are able to review this. Our Centre will be running with very limited staff numbers for some time as much of our team will remain working at home. We ask that you do not call to The Centre as we will not be able to welcome you in and counselling will be taking place so could be interrupted. The staff team have all received 2 vaccinations and will be completing regular home tests prior to attending to work. We ask that anyone who has an agreed appointment, completes a home Covid test on the day of attending and will only attend if this is negative. These tests can be ordered online to be delivered to your home or collected from a local pick-up point, both of which can be found here. All measures such as temperature checks on entry, face coverings, regular sanitising, social distancing, clear screens, and confirmation on no symptoms will continue. We will be inviting our volunteers in to talk to us individually very soon with a view to planning the future services with volunteer support. Therapies and arts & craft activities will be introduced at a later date and we will let you know those plans as soon as we can. We appreciate how hard things have been for everyone and will keep working to provide our face-to-face services as soon as we can. We have learned so much about working remotely and how things can be done differently so we will use some of this experience for the future. We would like to thank you again for your continued support, patience, resilience and kindness towards each other and our team. We look forward to welcoming you in the near future. |
